(General Background Arts of the Present Invention)
In recent years various appliances have been used in houses, buildings, and floors and sections thereof. Accordingly, attempts to acquire more comfortable life, improve operating conditions, save more energy and make operations more efficient have been made by integratedly controlling the appliances under home networks (or home network systems).
Specifically, for example, air conditioners, refrigerators, fans, solar heaters for bathwater, microwave ovens, hot-water supplies, electric kotatsu, warm air circulators, electric clocks, televisors, illuminators or the like are used in houses. Since time and period when these appliances are used relate greatly therebetween, operation and standby thereof are properly controlled in consideration of conditions such as the time and the period so that more comfortable life, a saving of more energy and the like are intended.
More specifically, the attempts are as follows:    1) Solar heaters can be frequently used for bathwater in the summer season. Thermostat of hot-water supplies, therefore, does not have to be set to so high temperature in a time slot for bathing so that the bathwater should be set to lower temperature than the winter season.    2) Power level of air conditioners is reduced even in the summer season for an extremely short time for using microwave ovens. Consequently, electric power simultaneously consumed in the whole house can be decreased.    3) Power level and switching of air conditioners in rooms are controlled by detecting the presence of persons therein with sensors.    4) Power level of air conditioners in offices is controlled by sensing the operating conditions of appliances as heating sources in operation therein.    5) Unnecessary illuminators in rooms are switched off in accordance with the time of day and the positions of appliances in operation therein.    6) Illuminators and air conditioners in empty classrooms are switched off at universities.
In addition, it has been studied and attempted that not merely the switching of appliances is controlled in accordance with seasons and the time of day but also aged people and infants are cared for and watched over particularly in houses where only aged people live or their parents are frequently absent by detecting the operating conditions.
Examples are as follows:    1) Domestic helpers are informed of disorders through telephone lines when the following disorders are detected; a door of toilets is not opened and shut for more than a certain time, a volume of televisors is too high, the operations of various appliances are unnatural such that air conditioners and warm air circulators are simultaneously in operation, or the like.    2) Parents are warned by the screen and voice of televisors when a portable telephone of their children go out of an area supervised by a station in charge of the neighborhood of their house.
Connections between various appliances for the above-mentioned purposes are conceptionally shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, a refrigerator 1, an air conditioner 2, an electric kotatsu 3, a fluorescent light 4, a microwave oven 5 and a washing machine 6 are connected to a controller (or a CPU) 10 by an electric wire 11, and thus a (sub) network is configured. A televisor 7 and an electric clock 8 are connected to the controller 10 by an infrared ray 12, and thus a (sub) network is configured. A telephone 9 is connected to the controller 10 by a wireless 13, and thus a (sub) network is configured.
In addition to the above, other means such as supersonic waves or plural means are used for connecting the appliances.
Also regarding the network, as shown in FIG. 1, many appliances and (sub) networks are connected radially from the only controller 10, and additionally as shown in FIG. 2(a), in order to decrease the maximum electric power consumption in factories and buildings, several (sub) networks having a router {which is positioned between plural (sub) networks to realize mutual communication therebetween. In FIG. 1, the controller 10 serves for the router. A communication processing function attached to an appliance serves for the router depending on a system and the appliance.} are connected by the router or an appliance serving for the router as a terminal of components thereof. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2(b), appliances and (sub) networks are hierarchically connected as trees.
In FIGS. 2(a) and (b), 20 indicates a (sub) network or an appliance as a substantial (sub) network and 30 indicates a router or an appliance serving for the router.
Full-time custodians as well as information desks and doorbells are occasionally incorporated into a system in factories, office buildings and hospitals.
Another example is not so complicated but a simple constitution; in the case of connecting a televisor and a video tape recorder, the video tape recorder periodically reads out a time signal in airwaves, which the televisor received, to adjust its built-in clock thereby for the purpose of displaying an exact time.
Moreover, various kinds of standards and plans therefor (such as ET-2101 and JEM-1439) have been decided and proposed in the Electronic Industries Association of Japan, the Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association and the like in order to effectively perform the functions of the networks.
Also, communications protocols and the like have been decided or developed.
For that purpose, equipments and functions such as communication processing functions necessary for performing the appropriate functions of the home networks have been attached to appliances (including sensors) in the stage of manufacturing or studied for attaching.
(Background Arts in View of the Problems to be Solved by the Present Invention)
In the above-mentioned configuration of control network systems of appliances, particularly household electric appliances, however, it should be recognized beforehand in the stage of designing the systems that which of the following methods the controller employs for acquiring operation data for controlling the appliances; a method of receiving the operation data transmitted from each of the appliances in changing the operation data such as switching, a method of receiving the operation data by a query from the controller to the appliances, a method of receiving the operation data periodically transmitted from the appliances to the controller, a method of receiving the operation data broadcasted from each of the appliances in changing the operation data, and the like. In terms of the conditions of the household electric appliances, the need to change how the controller acquires the operation data is occasionally caused on each introduction of other household electric appliances.
For the purpose of linked operations only by household electric appliances, addresses of household electric appliances for receiving operation data should be set at household electric appliances for transmitting the operation data, and additionally addresses of the household electric appliances for transmitting the operation data should be set at the household electric appliances for receiving the operation data. The setting, therefore, should be performed in each of control network systems of household electric appliances.
On the other hand, the problem is occasionally the electric power consumption of a controller in a system such that the controller receives operation data of household electric appliances to generate a command of operating other household electric appliances in accordance with the received operation data, and thereafter the controller transmits the command to other household electric appliances to control linkedly. That is, the electric power consumption of the household electric appliances is approximately 0.5 W on standby, while the electric power consumption of a personal computer as the controller is several tens to 100 W. Furthermore, in many cases the controller is constantly operated because of watching data in a network, leading to more electric power consumption thereof.
Available network wires, means and costs are limited in control network systems of household electric appliances.
Accordingly, it has been desirable that a technology without the need to change how a controller acquires operation data on each introduction of other household electric appliances is developed subject to many limitations in control network systems of household electric appliances.
Regarding linked operations between household electric appliances, it has been desirable that a technology of facilitating the setting of addresses and offering less electric power consumption is developed.
Also, it has been desirable that a technology of linkedly controlling household electric appliances without a controller with a considerable electric power consumption is developed.